Me complaining about a new gym..

I had no idea how to title this blog so I put in the first thing that came to my mind..
I had this sudden inclination to talk about this new gym that I went to 2 nights ago so here I go..

This gym is new in town and located right smack in a popular shopping mall in PJ (no points if you guessed it right). I was issued a 7-day pass few weeks back, so after many sessions of glorious food and some calories counting (I said some because I don't want to know the actual calories and please do not attempt to tell me..), I decided to go gym and try losing some weight(I used 'some' again but this time it's used in the context of duping myself into thinking I will lose more calories than I actually did.. clever, ain't I?)

My first misadventure was at the entrance of the gym "access denied" - reason I forgot to bring my 7-day pass. Actually I was too lazy to search for it at home and thought that the gym will be liberal and let me in since it's so new and membership is lacking anyway.. WRONG! "I'm sorry you need the 7-day pass, or the yellow copy of our membership agreement issued by any of our consultants" Fine, can you get me one consultant then? The ironic thing was my cousin, who registered the day before, was told that she could bring a friend the next time round but I was having problem trying to enter the gym.. so first impression NO GOOD.. Finally they got the consultant who issued the yellow form to my cousin the day before and I was allowed to enter.. Phew... (I was dressed in gym attire and if I could not get in, I would be forced to walk around the mall until my cousin finished with her workout..)

Got in, consultant (let's call him J) took us on a brief tour of the gym and told us that he will talk to us again after our workout. Fine.. went to the ladies changing room, put our things in the locker only to find that (Get this..) you have to bring your own padlock for the locker! Obviously I did not bring a padlock with me so I had my valuables parked in my cousin's locker (She brought one). If you don't have a padlock, too bad, anyone can just open your locker. Who in their right mind bring a padlock to gym? I found out their logic to this later - technically since you brought the padlock, only you have the key and no one else so the responsibility is entirely yours if something goes missing from your locker. Pretty safe isn't it? (Clever until I found out that they actually have a cutter in case someone loses their keys...Where's the safety?)

Anyway the gym provides towel but I had to encounter another adventure before getting mine.. Apparently to get the towel, you have to show the yellow form (here we go again..) and your driver's license (huh?) Ok, first I don't have the yellow form because J didn't issue me one (he said later) and I have to leave my driver's license with them to get towels? Yeah I understand the logic of making members return their towels.. but can't help but wonder what kind of members they have.. (obviously towel-lovers)

Did my workout, the machines were fine... variety was good and you can workout different muscle group with different machines.. Had to wait for 5 minutes at the cooler to fill my water bottle though (I'm guessing because the water pressure was low or it could be another ploy by the gym so that members will pay RM6.50 to get an organic drink/ juice from the juice bar).
Ok, end of workout (yes pretty short workout)

To cool down, we wanted to go out and get a drink (I am not paying RM6.50 for a juice in this gym) but to get in again you need the ______ ( you guessed it, the yellow membership agreement form which I didn't have). Had to scout for J and coerced him to give me the mighty yellow form before I run into more problems of not having one..

If you think things were bad enough already. you are in for a surprise...
Went to the changing room.. hhmmmm it's dark, where do I turn the lights on.. wait a minute, there is no light.. (yup) never mind I'll just change in the dark.. hhmm where do I hang my clothes ? Can you believe they have no hooks in the changing room either? Do they expect me to put my clothes on the floor or do they expect me to put their towels on the floor? (I can see you are amused..) oh fine they're still new I'll put up with it.. Went to the shower, yikes, shower curtains instead of doors? Personally I have no qualms about shower curtains, but at a gym where usage is high I hate to imagine the colour of shower curtains in 3 months time.. and shower curtains stick to you (yuck..) and there are no hooks in the showers too! (by now surely you are not surprised anymore) Oh alright, there is 1 hook outside every shower and a small little triangle steel holder for you to put your toiletries. (I had one bag of toiletries so I put it on a chair outside the shower and grab what I needed..)

Anyway I didn't like the facilities and the whole experience.. my cousin and I proceeded to feedback to the manager about our (ahem..) comments. Would you believe that he did not know that there were no lights and hooks in the changing room? Of course I can understand that it's ladies changing room and he can't go in there during operational hours, but after they close? No other members gave feedback on that? How weird.. (back to my question on what kind of members they have.. must be both towel and peace-lovers)

I think we must have complaint quite abit because the manager finally asked if there was anything we liked about the gym (hehe..) My cousin liked the towels and I like the variety of machines that they have.. we left after the manager promised to look into the issues we raised. Haha.. funny.. I'm in the customer service line and I know exactly what they mean when they say that and when they use the line..

Maybe precisely because I'm in this line, I know I need to give my feedback when I see something not right.. or maybe because I've seen and met too many complaining passengers so I know how to complain? Or perhaps I've been on the receiving end far too long and for once it's nice to switch roles? Then again I have a funny feeling it's because of recent influence from a rather opinionated friend..